The present invention relates generally to a tutorial system and, more particularly, a tutorial system for teaching job specific words and phrases in at least two separate languages.
Many jobs in the marketplace today utilize a diverse workforce comprised of persons from a wide variety of cultural and geographic backgrounds. Many of these people can only communicate in their native language and cannot speak or comprehend any other language. For example, within the United States where the dominant language is English, there are many persons who speak Spanish and know only a limited number of English words. Because these persons are employed in the work force, a number of problems have resulted.
When these persons initially begin work, it is difficult to instruct them properly on how to perform their jobs. Basic criteria may be able to be sufficiently communicated, but specific and technical requirements necessary when performing the job are almost impossible to communicate effectively such that the new employee understands their responsibility. Improper training inevitably results in the employee not satisfactorily performing their jobs to the expected levels, and may even endanger the new employee or others working with them if precautionary safety instructions are not properly understood.
Another problem occurs for supervisors who attempt to communicate with these persons. Communication on the job is either not effective, or is extremely difficult and frustrating for both the supervisor attempting to explain a component of the job, and the worker who cannot understand what is being explained to them. Again, this results in the job not being properly completed, taking too much time, or one or both parties becoming frustrated because of lack of communication.
One method of overcoming these problems is to teach the employees and supervisors the necessary foreign language. There are numerous manners of teaching languages, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,271,884 to Roberson and herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. However, a drawback to these systems is that they must begin on a very fundamental and basic level learning basic words that are part of the language, but words that are not necessary for performing the specific job for which they are responsible. Although these methods will eventually allow the person to speak the foreign language, they are very time consuming and expensive. By the time the person has learned the foreign language with enough adequacy to speak the specifics necessary for their job, an extended period of time may have evolved. This is especially problematic in many jobs, such as within the service industry, in which turnover is very high and the average employee has a relatively short work history with a single employer.
Other methods have included pictorial illustrations of the necessary steps in performing specific jobs such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,851,117 to Alsheimer et al., herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. These methods illustrate the various tasks and include a brief description of the job requirements. However, the explanations only appear in a single language. These methods may assist an employee who can already speak the necessary language, but they are not effective in conveying the information in a foreign language.
Ideally, there would be a system that would illustrate the specific jobs; include words and phrases specific to the tasks and functions necessary for performing that job; and display the corresponding words and phrases in at least two separate languages. This system both trains the supervisors and employees on the necessary components of the job and also teaches language skills necessary for performing specific tasks.
The present invention is directed to a training device for teaching a user how to communicate. The device teaches the user words and phrases necessary for performing a job in two languages. This device is especially helpful for persons initially learning the required aspects of a job, and also for supervisory personnel who need to communicate with employees working for them. The device includes a display illustrating a first word set in a first language and a second corresponding word set in a second language. The first and second word sets are placed in a correlating manner within the display to allow the user to recognize the correlation between the languages.
The device may be accessed in a computer format such that a person reads the words on a monitor and manipulates the displays via a mouse, or keypad. The device may also provide for icons illustrating the various words and phrases, and an audio format for playing them in either language.
When using the invention, the device displays a first menu having predefined job areas that appear in a first language and a second language. The user inputs their desired selection, and the corresponding plurality of words is displayed relating to the selected predefined job area in the first and second languages. Within the displays, illustrations may be placed, as well as audio formats.